SAN FRANCISCO, September 23, (THEWILL) – The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, is said to have overruled the majority decision of the National Working Committee, NWC, for a fresh primary to pick who would fly the party’s flag for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State.
The party’s Appeal Committee, headed by Mrs Helen Bendega, reportedly recommended the cancellation of the disputed primary which produced Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu SAN as the flag bearer and called for a fresh primary.
The Nation gathered that the 12-member NWC failed to reach a consensus after meeting for three days. It decided to vote on the outcome, but the 13th member of the body elected not to participate.
The two motions voted on are: Adoption of the recommendation of the Appeal Panel to cancel the primaries that allegedly produced Akeredolu and conduct a fresh one; and to submission of the Vice Chairman (South-west zone) Akinyelure’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to beat the deadline, pending the resolution of the logjam.
According to the report, six members voted to uphold the recommendation of the Appeal Panel, which is a fresh primary. Five members voted to upturn the report of the panel and retain Akeredolu as candidate.
But Oyegun decided to overrule the majority decision already reached by six members and reportedly forwarded Akeredolu’s name to INEC as the party’s candidate.
Speaking with the newspaper, one of the NWC members, who pleaded not be named, said: “A majority of the NWC members had taken a decision with their votes. What the chairman did was to overrule the majority and force his opinion on the majority.”
The appeal panel, which examined the petitions against the governorship primary, recommended its cancellation.
The Panel Chairman and Secretary signed the recommendations while the third member did not authenticate it.
The Appeal panel made its recommendation based on the corruption of the delegates list. It also observed that there was evidence that non-party members were recruited to vote.
